53
VOYAGES
AND
D I S C O V E R I E S OF
ritory, provided the half did not exceed 300,000 maravedies : all beyond that amount was to go to the crown. A principal reason, however, for granting this government and those privileges to Ojeda, was that, in his previous voyage, he had met with English adventurers on a Voyage of Discovery in the neighborhood of Coquibacoa, at which the jealousy of the sovereigns had taken the alarm.
They were anxious, therefore,
to establish a resolute and fighting commander like Ojeda upon this outpost, and they instructed him to set up the arms of Castile and Leon in every place he visited, as a signal of discovery and possession, and to put a stop to the intrusions of the English.* With this commission in his pocket, and the government of an Indian territory in the perspective, Ojeda soon found associates to aid him in fitting out an armament.
These were Juan de Ver-
gara, a servant of a rich canon of the cathedral of Seville, and Garcia de Campos, commonly called Ocampo.
They made a
contract of partnership to last for two years, according to which the expenses and profits of the expedition, and of the government of Coquibacoa, were to be shared equally between them.
The
purses of the confederates were not ample enough to afford ten ships, but they fitted out four.
1st, The Santa Maria de la Anti足
gua, commanded by Garcia del Campo ; 2d, The Santa Maria de la Granada, commanded by Juan de Vergara ; 3d, The caravel Magdalena, commanded by Pedro de Ojeda, nephew to Alonzo and 4th, The caravel Santa Ana, commanded by Hernando de Guevara. Ojeda.
The whole was under the command of Alonzo de
The expedition set sail in 1502, touched at the Canaries,
according to custom, to take in provisions, and then proceeded westward for the shores of the New World. * Navarrete, torn. iii. Document x.